Trailbuilders – jumps

Question for those that build jumps on trails. Why do you build doubles? Is it just the case of the middle of the jump being the easiest place to get the soil for the take off and landing or is it for the added thrill? Asking as a lot of the jumps that are appearing round me are doubles with a 5 foot plus gap in the middle with a great big hole where the soil has been taken from which, as i’m a fan of the case, give me the heebiejeebies. Why not just get the soil from areas close by and possibly fill in the centre section while you’re at it so they can be ridden by everyone, including those that want to roll the whole thing? Just wondering if a double adds excitement or is just a case of cba to move more soil which is fair enough since you’re building them. Always wondered if i would piss a jump builder off by filling in the middle 😀

And that presumably also ties in with why the soil is taken from the middle. Fair enough, just think there’s more chance of someone clattering themselves on a double where its out of their comfort zone but for whatever reason are giving it a go and then the whole trail gets wrecked.

1) It requires an awful lot more time and effort to build a table.
2) To stop everyone riding them. There are always loads of kids that hang around jump spots. They don’t contribute in any way towards building or maintenance and if the jumps were all tables there would be a constant flow of kids riding over them and skidding all over the place.

Doubles look dangerous, but they tend to deter people who aren’t sure about their ability from giving it a try. You can also clatter yourself on a table quite easily, for example if you overshoot. The reason doubles tend to get trails demolished is more down to the way they look, and the possibility that someone will be rolling down the trail without realising what’s coming up.

Greeble – yep, appreciate its mind tricks but there is no out for coming up short and i’m not the most confident jumping. Plus there are some trails where the jump is quite big (in my terms) and i’ve no real interest in pushing myself that far but love the rest of the trail. A table would make it more fun. Obviously all entirely selfish based on my ability and i guess the difference between a funded trail centre and someone’s hard graft in their own spare time which i do appreciate. Bizarrely according to a relatively recent interview i’m one of the few to actually give the guy a token of appreciation which i think is out of order but that is a different story.

grum – Member
At my (now gone) local jump spot sometimes people would pile up pallets between the doubles, presumably so you could land on them if you came up short.
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Ime that’s just done to make it look less daunting rather than use as a safety net. Tabletop > double with something in the gap > double

Also few builders would want to build anything that can be rolled as it leads to the lip being worn down a lot faster, meaning even more maintenance.

If I am building wooden take off and landing ramps what are the best angles/profile to use? I built one before with a wooden table in the middle that you could take away that was pretty good but was not sure about the dimensions.

If its on legitimate sanctioned trail it would be so they’re rollable and so accessible to all, but this doesn’t sound the case from your OP.

If just built in the woods by yoofs then they build the bit they care about landing and take off. But you wouldn’t get that at a trail centre. FE for example have a thing about In Line enforced air. Its a no go.

What pisses me off more than anything are the busy trails that loads of families use which get the gnar treatment. Why can’t people dig an alternate line rather than ruin it for other trail users? Selfish little pricks.

I’d only ever monkey with jumps that looked totally abandoned. If a set of trails looks like its been recently dug/ridden then find something else to ride…

Its all well and good sanitising a trail (that someone else more advanced with jumping was probably quite happy with), but if you’ve got the time to fill in a 5ft gap in a double you’ve got time to build a smaller line a few foot away with rollers, tables and smaller doubles to learn on and then build up to riding the big boys line…

If you’re clearing a gap, you’re clearing a gap. If you don’t have the skill, dont attempt it. The danger in jumping isn’t coming short, it’s simply being out of control in the air, a tabletop cant fix that.

As soon as you approach a jump with the intention of landing on the top, it becomes habit and you build up bigger, harder to break mental barriers.

Also as mentioned, too much extra unnecessary work.

You can still fall of the side of a tabletop.

As always, the safest thing is to operate within your own limits.

Its all well and good sanitising a trail (that someone else more advanced with jumping was probably quite happy with), but if you’ve got the time to fill in a 5ft gap in a double you’ve got time to build a smaller line a few foot away with rollers, tables and smaller doubles to learn on and then build up to riding the big boys line…

If you’re clearing a gap, you’re clearing a gap. If you don’t have the skill, dont attempt it. The danger in jumping isn’t coming short, it’s simply being out of control in the air, a tabletop cant fix that.

As soon as you approach a jump with the intention of landing on the top, it becomes habit and you build up bigger, harder to break mental barriers.

Also as mentioned, too much extra unnecessary work.

You can still fall of the side of a tabletop.

As always, the safest thing is to operate within your own limits.

All that’s well and good for experienced jumpers, but tabletops are useful for people learning to jump. You don’t know what you can clear until you try. It’s best not to figure that out by repeatedly landing in a hole.

The danger in jumping isn’t coming short, it’s simply being out of control in the air, a tabletop cant fix that.

Some of the danger is coming up short if there’s no middle, and getting little bits of air is still fun even if you don’t perfectly hit the down ramp, no need to deny that little bit of fun to everyone, and us ground dwellers don’t always know if we’re going to get all the way there.

Fair enough if you’ve got your own jump spot, but if you’re building in the main line where others ride then there’s a strong argument for building to all skill levels.

All that’s well and good for experienced jumpers, but tabletops are useful for people learning to jump. You don’t know what you can clear until you try. It’s best not to figure that out by repeatedly landing in a hole.

Answer to that is to do what kids/teens have been doing forever, bits of wood on bricks (could be a mound of earth) and launching off of it over and over. It turns into a long jump competition with marks where everyone is landing. You then make a landing ramp, no gap, then slowly make it longer, not difficult, is it?

and getting little bits of air is still fun even if you don’t perfectly hit the down ramp, no need to deny that little bit of fun to everyone, and us ground dwellers don’t always know if we’re going to get all the way there

Which slowly erodes away other peoples hard work.

Learning skills on bikes takes hard work (physically and mentally), lots of time and acceptance that how easy or hard something is, you will inevitably fall off and hurt yourself.

Seems to me, who is a BMXer who has built trails all their life, MTB is scared of hard work when it comes to building stuff appropriate for their skill level, putting the effort in to learn something or even picking their selves up after falling off and giving it another go. There’s always an excuse, whether it be time/being scared/bike/no right to be building.

But contrary to what you agreed with above as in this case if you have time to build a jump in the middle of an existing trail then you have time to create an alternate line with a jump on? Then everyone that enjoys the trail in its current state can continue to do so and you can go jumpy jumpy. If you built the original trail then its a different point entirely.